Life long friends

When I was in high school there was a newly married couple in my ward that moved into a house on my street. Stacey served in the Young Women's, and Dave was my very favorite Sunday School teacher. In fact, he was the only one who could get me to come to class. Since our church was walking distance I generally preferred to go home during the middle hour and get something to eat.

Anyway, time goes on, and as luck would have it Stacey and I found ourselves pregnant with our first borns at the same time. She was due two months before me, but we managed to beat her by a couple of weeks.

Because Nick stayed in the hospital for those few weeks, he was still there the day Hannah was born. Despite their nearly comatose state, they must have bonded as they lay there in their cribs in that hospital nursery. Twelve years later, they are still good friends. Hannah has a little brother Madison's age, and the five of them Nick, Maddie, Zach, Hannah, and Derek have been nearly inseparable since we've arrived. I could not be more thrilled. The kids have played and played and played. They've soaked up sunshine and had scooter races up and down the street. They've played in the play house in the back yard and swam in Hannah's pool. They made up a song to perform for the parents and helped with the yard clean up when the city deposited dumpsters throughout the neighborhood. (mostly they just liked to smash stuff.) Hannah did Madison's hair and turned her into a tree nymph, and they ate dinner over because no one wanted to stop playing long enough to eat. The day finally ended for them sometime around 10:30 PM, when we said "Enough! The adults want to go to bed!"I nearly cried to think that the TV stayed blissfully off, no one fought over playing on the Wii or the computer, and I never once heard the words "I'm bored."
"This is the way summers should be", I thought. This is the way it was like when I was a kid. Instead of scooters we had roller skates and bikes, and no one I knew had a pool, but nearly everyone had a trampoline.

As I was talking to John on the phone this morning he asked if this was going to be my summer ward from now on. It's definitely something to think about.

The Twelve Days of Summer

by Maddie Berrett

Nick Berrett

and Hannah Ely

On the twelfth day of Summer my best friend gave to me -

12 Outside Games

11 Trampolines

10 Playful Dogs

9 Barbecues

8 Summer Movies

7 Tiny Butterflies

6 Trees for Climbing

5 Happy Kids

4 Jungle Gyms

3 Swimming Suits

2 Pools for Swimming

and a Blue Bird in a Cedar Tree